Ler História 44 / 2003
Dossier Miseridórdias of here and there
Laurinda Abreu
Misericórdias, patrimonialization and royal control (16th and 17th Centuries)Carla Alferes Pinto
The Misericórdia of Bassein (1540-1729)
Isabel dos Guimarães Sá
Charity and trade in the Misericórdia of Macao (17th and 18th centuries)
Documents in Study
Maria Marta Lobo de Araújo
Endow to marry: the orphans of the priest Francisco Correia
Studies
Maria Helena Trindade Lopes
The religious universe in the Old Egypt: essay of systematisationLeonor Freire Costa
Information and uncertainty: dealing with the risks of the colonial businessJoão Carlos Graça
“Third ways”, “intermediate schools” and “Portuguese school” in the economic thought of the second half of the 19th centuryJoão Leal
“Foreigners” in Portugal: the Portuguese Anthropology in the 1960Valdo d’Arienzo
In the Far West: privileges, enterprises and Sicilian investments in the Algarve
Abstracts
Ler História 44 / 2003
Misericórdias, patrimonialization and royal control (16th and 17th Centuries)Carrying a pity conception, which recovered the evangelic ideal of the “poor Christ”, the Misericórdias rise, under the aegis of the royal power, as a synthesis between the medieval world, which was leaving, and the assisting demands of the emerging modern society. Praising the doctrine of poverty and charity, and at the same time, centralizing competencies in the field of assistance, according to the new social policies. These characteristics would be kept without important alterations until the middle of the 16th Century, beginning then a new phase, which fundamental characteristics were the patrimonialization, the domain of the hospitals and the progressive royal intervention. It were the different phases of this way that the author aims to present in this study, given particular importance to the role that the Church and the State developed in this process.
The Misericórdia of Bassein (1540-1729)This paper tells the history of Bassein as well as of its Misericórdia, since the concession of the island of Bassein by Bahadur Shah to the Portuguese, once it is one of its eldest institutions.
The Misericórdia is little mentioned at the rare and scattered documentation but often perceptible in the countless maps and charts know of this town. Through this data, we have rewritten the story of the institution, of its important church and hospital, as well as its urban placement.
A new interpretation of the documentation offers a different location to the church of the Misericórdia, allowing the description of the façade based on regular typologies in Portugal and in the Estado da Índia.
Charity and trade in the Misericórdia of Macao (17th and 18th centuries)This first approach to the activities of the Misericórdia of Macao considers as crucial elements the mercantile nature of the economy of the city and the structure of its colonial population. The importance of credit is well demonstrated by the analysis of the accounts of the institution, having brought to the fore its pre-banking activities. Similarly to other colonial contexts, charity was designed to the individuals with some level of religious or economic integration in the colonial society. Macao’s Portuguese and Christian population accounted for a minority of the city’s population, increasingly formed by Chinese immigrants, and reveals a high number of orphaned and widowed women among the colonial groups. This work suggests that the institution’s involvement in credit activities was compensated by an investment in the visibility of conspicuous almsgiving in some events of the liturgical calendar. In these occasions, the presence of women was overwhelming. On the other hand, the number of the individuals who were given long-term charity (foundlings, lepers, sick poor or prisoners) was generally below 100-120.
The religious universe in the Old Egypt: essay of systematisationReligion is an indispensable element for the understanding of the Old Egypt’s society, determining their way of being, and feeling. It is religion that constitutes the base of its conceptions of State and power, of its practical attitudes, feelings, artistic and intellectual representations. In this study, the author presents a synthesis of the main elements and contents of the Old Egypt, given the image of a universe where men, gods and the Cosmos itself (sacred) develop in a harmonious way a rich and singular language.
Information and uncertainty: dealing with the risks of the colonial businessBadly dominated by the communication technologies, distance was one of the risky factors regarding the decisions of the social agents. The war between nations worsened the circumstances, determining the institutional and technological framing of the spinning wheels, the high transaction costs, especially in the spaces of the colonial empire. Having the luso-brazilien traffic of the 17th Century as an analysis case, this study places the risk of business in the centre of the problems. It examines the protection modalities, beside insurance, interpreting the presence of the office of a notary in economic life, as well as other institutions and organisations that regulated and served the mercantile activity.
“Third ways”, “intermediate schools” and “Portuguese school” in the economic thought of the second half of the 19th century
The designation of the doctrinaire positions of Portuguese academic political economy of the second half of the 19th century by the formula of “third ways” is basically equivocal.
If this expression is understood as a moderate doctrinaire leaning, it is false in what concerns Forjaz de Sampaio (years 1850-60), who was a conservative author; and the same goes for Frederico Sampaio (years 1880-90), who was a socialist one.
If it is understood as a project of construction of an economic vision meant to be essentially Portuguese, a “Portuguese school”, it is also false to both of the mentioned authors.
“Foreigners” in Portugal: the Portuguese Anthropology in the 1960The 1960s were characterised by the development of the first modernist anthropological analyses of rural Portugal. Anthropologists such as Joyce Riegelhaupt, José Cutileiro and Colette Callier-Boisvert introduced in Portuguese anthropology the main paradigms then prevalent in international anthropology, subverted the strong relationship between the study folk culture and the search for national identity that until then had dominated the Portuguese anthropological tradition, and powerfully contributed to the development of new concerns and images in the analysis of rural Portugal.
In the Far West: privileges, enterprises and Sicilian investments in the AlgarveIn the first half of the 16th Century some shipowners of Messina, gathered in a society of limited liability, established their activity in Lagos village, in the Algarve, known for being an important production and transformation centre of tuna fish. There they come across with bad customhouse administration, but obtained from the monarch D. Manuel some privileges. This article briefly presents the Italian expansion in the Mediterranean to the shores of Portugal, allowing the knowledge of new sources, which permit to situate this presence since the beginning of the 16th Century until the 17th Century. Beyond the new interpretative hypothesis, this new frame also allows to raise interesting issues.